Inward Sinking / Nei Xian

CORE DEFINITION

Nei Xian, inward sinking, is the late stage of a sore or boil in which the body's upright qi is too depleted to expel the toxin, so the toxin instead moves inward and attacks the organs. It is the opposite failure to yellow traveling: there the barrier is overwhelmed by force, here it collapses from weakness. The classical treatment principle is to support the qi while expelling the toxin, using herbs such as astragalus, rather than clearing heat alone. The constraint is that the remedy is reinforcement, not suppression.